New Year 2011

With a new year brings in so many resolutions and desires for many. Many studios fill up with many new students coming, wanting to make some pretty big changes. It would be better to focus on smaller changes though if you want to really see improvement for the long term.

In the Yoga Sutras we learn that there are 8 limbs to yoga and asana is just one part of it. Therefore making your focus and intension to focus on something deeper and making smaller changes – will help your practice. Maybe this is missing from your practice now and that is what makes your yoga practice just physical. I had a student tell me recently she has been practicing for years and “is just stuck”. She felt physically stuck though.

BKS Iyengar writes in “Light on the Yoga Sutras” that a bird cannot fly with one wing”. Practicing and focusing on just the physical body is just that. By allowing yourself to go deeper it will allow yourself to be balanced and fly!

Often I experience students who have hurt themselves – yes even in yoga you can do this. This can happen as we push and push ourselves into the ‘perfect’ position or pose.

Better to let go, not push and apply this to your life as well. It often frustrates people who come with an expectation with their body and thought they would be further along in their practice and not sure why they are where they are. As I told the student above “Ah that maybe the lesson”. Just like a bird that builds a nest, it takes each twig, string etc and builds it a piece at a time. Then if a storm comes in and blows the nest away, it must stop and rebuild again. Our practice isn’t always moving in a forward motion. Sometimes it takes steps backwards, forwards, sideways etc. That is the lesson and journey.

Take a deep breath, let go and see what comes from it. Something even more than you thought or could have imagined could happen by letting go.